Math and misinformation

 

                                                                       A view of Skye from the Skye Bridge

As well as writing factual accounts about my ancestors, I have also started to piece together larger stories based on their lives. That means figuring out the timeline for the ancestor who is the main focus of the tale, of course, but it also involves doing the math when it comes to people with whom they interacted. I'm finding that particularly tricky when it comes to women in their childbearing years.

It also involves checking the documents I've amassed for those intersecting families. It's good to remind myself about the facts I've been able to pin down with documentary proof. Unfortunately, I'm still coming up short on some factual data, particularly that of Margaret Clark nee McPherson, a person who was pivotal in reconnecting Alexander Matheson with his family.

An added source for Alexander's story is his letters. They contain clues to Alex's character and the events of his life. But, as tempting as it is, even the information he wrote down on paper cannot be accepted as gospel. People misremember or embroider the facts and information, although it is on government documents such as the census, can be incorrect.

Early on I remember a well-known source for the Thomson family phoning me out of the blue with facts about the family. I noted them down and thanked her but even as a family historian new to the game I knew that I should treat what she told me with a degree of scepticism. One of the things she said was that Tom Thomson's mother, Margaret, whose maiden name was Matheson, was born in PEI but I already had a copy of the June 25th 1841 baptism record for Margaret Matheson, daughter of Kenneth Matheson and Ann Ross. I had found it in the parish registers for Kilmuir on Skye.

It's good to remember that family lore and written accounts can provide wonderful clues but they can also hand down misinformation that has taken on the weight of fact the more it is told. I've tried to hang onto this principle as I find out about my families. I hope that has brought me closer to the truth of their stories. Perhaps figuring out timelines of intersecting families will also provide me with new avenues of research as I write down my family tales.

Sources:

LDS film 0990671 item 2: Parish registers for Kilmuir, 1823-1854